2002 Chateau Musar
Community Tasting Note
forceberry wrote:
Saturday, April 1, 2023 - n 2002 long, cold and rainy weather pushed the ends of the winter and the spring back, all the way into late June, followed by a mild July and then, suddenly, a hot August. The ripening process was delayed accordingly, the harvest starting two weeks behind the normal schedule, starting on 15th of September. The maturity of grapes was extremely varied from vineyard to vineyard, so instead of picking the varieties one by one, the harvest had to be done vineyard by vineyard, according to the maturity. This year the fermentation and maceration times were much longer than normal. After 6 months of aging in concrete vats, the wines were racked into oak barrels for one year. After the oak aging the wines were blended together and matured for a further year in oak casks before bottling. 14% alcohol. Decanted for four hours before tasting the wine.
Quite deep, dark and moderately translucent maroon red color. The nose feels expressive, somewhat evolved and slightly volatile with sweet'n'savory aromas of wizened red fruits and ripe red currants, some developed meat jerky tones, a little bit of minty lift, light smoky nuances, a hint of tobacco, a sweet, lifted touch of ethery VA and a whiff of fresh black cherries. The wine feels silky, harmonious and moderately evolved on the palate with a medium body and slightly tertiary flavors of dried dates and dark raisiny fruit, some savory notes of meaty umami, a little bit of wizened red plums, light ferrous notes of blood, a bretty hint of leathery funk and a touch of balsamic VA. The overall feel is balanced with the rather high acidity, although the ripe medium tannins contribute more to the texture rather than to the structure. The finish is evolved, savory and somewhat grippy with a long, complex and juicy aftertaste of wizened red plums and dried dates, some tertiary beef jerky tones, a little bit of meaty umami, light balsamic notes of VA, a hint of ripe figs and a touch of leathery funk.
As before, this 2002 vintage seems a lighter and more delicate vintage of Musar where the most important element seems to be its rather high acidity. Without that vital freshness, this would be a rather underwhelming effort, but with its sufficiently high acidity the wine comes across as balanced and harmonious, not dull or too soft. At a wee bit over 20 years of age, the wine shows some tertiary development, but is yet to go downhill. As some subtly oxidative elements have appeared among the fruit flavors, I'd say the wine is starting to be at its peak and won't improve much further from here - but at least it will continue to keep for a good handful of years more. And I'd say this bottle performed slightly better than the one we had a few years ago, when the wine seemed to be slightly softer and more underwhelming than before. This bottle was better in line with the typical style of the vintage.
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